


Space Angel

by Akiriama



Category: Original Work
Genre: Aliens invading Earth, Angst, Multi, Slow Burn, War, multi relationships, space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-03-23 12:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13788012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akiriama/pseuds/Akiriama





	1. Entrance

"Hey my Angel darling!" Called a voice from the other side of the mess hall. I looked up and saw Zulther. Gods he is a jerk, what does he want now? Unfortunately he is the best fighter here at command currently and my superior. Balls that means I have to salute him. 

"Oh my darling Z! I thought you would never show your face after all the screaming you did last night. I'm sure you woke the whole Flank in Section C." Zulther stopped and looked around. A few people had stopped eating their breakfast and looks up, other had their spoons halfway to their mouths and their breakfast was falling off. I lifted my spoon to my mouth as Zulther walked to my side.

"I'm still your superior. You're going to regret that dick lover!" He pressed his hand on the side of my bowl pouring my breakfast over me and the floor. You could feel the ambience of cool confidence sliding off of him as he walked away.  

A different presence appeared behind me. "You better clean that up before the Nav. cadets get here. Flitch won't be happy if his floor is dirty when our guest arrive. You better just change too, you want a good impression today." I turned around to look at the tall man. He was tall and muscular, which his skin tight flight suit showed off extremely well. His hair was grey but it did not make him old, and his short haircut showed off the contoured face look flawless. "I want to see you do well, I am hoping you will find your compatible Nav. today." With a smile, Commander Jericho was off down the hall. I owe my life to Commander Jericho. If it wasn't for him I would still be in the outskirts dying or dead. 

"WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY FLOOR!?" A hunched, elderly man half ran, half staggered over to me. 

"My apologies Flitch, I seemed to have dropped my breakfast everywhere, I was just heading to grab some stuff to clean it."

"Oh Angel it is you!" Once he finally reached me he realised who it was. "No, no, don't worry. There is no time for you to fix your uniform and clean the floor. You get out of here and get yourself cleaned up I'll sort out this mess." I nodded and bowed to Flitch. I went to mutter a thank you but before I could get the words out. "Don't just stand there, The Nav.s will be here any minute. Get moving!" I ran out of the hall and instantly bumped into some one as I rounded the corner.

"SORRY! Sorry, sorry, sorry," I continuously repeated as I helped the person up. He did not look like anyone I knew. He was a little taller than me and had short brown hair. A big contrast to my longer white hair. I looked him up and down. His uniform was similar to mine but different in some ways. For one it was green rather than blue. It matched his bright eyes that seemed to sparkle even though he had just been knocked to the floor. I felt a pressure on my wrist. I looked down and saw that we were holding hands. We looked up at the same time and caught eye contact. Both of us sheepishly tried to pull away but our hands wouldn't budge. I looked down and saw a red light encircling our hands. My hand was thinner and looked quite feminie compared to his. He had darker hair coming up from his arms onto the backs of his hands, whereas there was hardly any hair on mine at all. I flicked my eyes back up to his face and saw the confusion I felt in his expression. I quickly scanned the rest of his body and noticed something that disrupted the smooth green colour of his uniform. My breakfast! He noticed me looking at his thigh and looked down. Instantly our hands separated and his hands went down to his leg to wipe off the mess that I had made. "I am soooo sorry!" I said to the stranger. "Follow me, I can help you get that off." Unconsciously I grabbed his hand and led him to my room. I led him into the bathroom and hastily grabbed my face towel. I wet it and started to clean my breakfast off of his trousers. He grabbed my hand pulling me out of my own littler world.

"I can sort myself. You look like you need to change and we do not have a lot of time. The ceremony starts soon." Giving the stranger a pleading smile I rushed into my room and quickly changed into a new uniform. 

"Ahhh much better!" Come on we better hurry back before our superiors kill us." The stranger chuckled and waited for me to lead us back. 

We silently jogged back to the mess hall and quietly joined into our groups. I joined the rest of my Flank who were garbed in blue uniforms. As I looked over I saw the navigators standing perfectly in a row in their green uniforms. That made so much sence now. That guy I bumped into was a navigator. I can't believe I didn't recognise his uniform. I wonder why he was so far away from his group earlier. A man in a white uniform adorned with medals walked into the middle of the room and we fighters quickly lined up in rows. I so happened to be standing right in front of Zulther. 

"Sucking Flitch's dick too then? No wonder all the superiors love you. You must be amazing with all that practice. Dunno how you can deal with old man dick though." Ooooo I wish I could turn around and punch him square in the nose. I felt him pinch the back of my neck, another ploy to distract me. I rubbed my neck and watcher as Commander Jericho came into the middle of the room to address everyone. Jericho was now in his ceremonial uniform. It was white the same as the other man's, however the embellishments were blue rather than green. He had many more medals. 

"I wish to welcome the Navigators from Adalard Station to Command. The Navigators are here to see if they can find their compatible Fighters. You may have noticed that we fighters greatly out number the Navigators. Do not stress if you do not find your match today, we are the last training centre the Navigators come to for cadets such as yourselves." There were seven Navigators standing in front of us where there were about fourty of us Fighters. "If you are not chosen today, next week the Navigators from Rajiv Station will be here for recruitment and the others later in the month. Our men will move in an orderly fashion from Navigator to Navigator placing your hands over the top of their outstretched ones. If your hands clash together and a red light encircles your hands, you have been chosen to be partners." I looked over to the Navigators and saw the one I clashed with earlier. We both had realisation on our faces. We nodded at each other, coming to a mutual understanding of what was going on. "Alright my me in an orderly fashion, line up and lets get this ceremony started. If you do not get paired up, head to the back of the hall and wait for further instruction." Of course no one followed any sort of orderly fashion. Navigators just ran forwards trying to see if they were leaving today. 

Through out the mess, the Nav. from earlier and I found each other. I shook his hand and we stepped back out of the way to confirm we had been partnered up. The Navigator Corporal walked over to us with a curious eye.

"What is happening here men? No red bonding signs have been shown at all so why have you stepped back."

"I apologise for the confusion sir. We collided in the hallway earlier before the ceremony and as we shook hands the light erupted then. We had no idea what it was until it was explained just a moment ago." The nav. spoke up for me before I could even open my mouth.

"How is it that a Navigator who has been to at least 5 other ceremonies did not know what the bonding sign is?"

"That would be because he hasn't been to any other ceremonies Corporal." Another man in white approached us. The man who initially spoke saluted the new man. The Navigator I was standing next to didn't do anything so I followed his lead hoping not to get into trouble. "McMillan here was specially shipped down for this ceremony. He unfortunately was too sick to travel down for the earlier ceremonies. Hence I brought him along with bringing the transport ship down."

"These are our last group we visit Commander? Why not wait for the next round?"

"Things are worse than you think Corporal. While you have been here recruiting we have had a bad string of attacks, we need as many as we can as quickly as we can." The Corporal saluted and wondered off.

"Since we are going to be partners. The name is Jay." He put his hand out for a new handshake as if we were properly meeting each other.

"Angel," I said. I looked at Jays face whilst grabbing his hand to shake it. It seemed like he was expecting more. He cocked his head to one side in confusion. He was very cute. 

"How about you tell me about yourself while we go and get your things from your room?" As we walked back to my room I explained my background. There isn't really much to tell. I don't remember anything before I was seven, Commander Jericho picked me up while he was on a mission in the outskirts when I was nine and I started as a cadet when I was 11. The commander practically raised me, he was the closest thing I had to a family. Jay was shocked at my past. He had come from within a colony. Nice fancy walls keeping all the trash out. His entire family has been part of the star fleet for many generations. He was a McMillan. I wasn't much of a history buff and always fell asleep during history classes. Jay explained that he felt like he had a load of pressure to be as good as the rest of his family. Even the females of his family had been high ranked in the fleet. 

Unfortunately nowadays there aren't many females left at all. An artificial disease produced by an alien race, attacks the female body and leaves them weak and unable to reproduce. Slowly depreciating the human population. Unfortunately as Jay's mother was in the star fleet. She was fully dosed with it during one attack and she died a few days later. 

We reached my room, I punched in the code and we walked in. 

"You don't need to do anything to help, Just take a sit, I don't have much to collect." I grabbed my duffle and unceremoniously shoved my flight suits, and overalls into my bag. "Sorry again about before. Some jerk spilled my breakfast on me. I was on my way here to change when I ran into you."

"I assumed something like that might of happened. Otherwise how would you have gotten your food all over me?"

"Still it was quite rude of me to just run off and not properly introduce myself." I walked into the bathroom to grab my few toiletries.

"Well we were both rushing and most likely freaking out about the ceremony. What else could you have done." I shoved my pillow and thing from my bed into my bag while Jay talked. I just had one more thing to grab.

"You have a good point there. I just have one last thing to get and then I'm ready. Feel free to wait outside for me." I wandered to my drawer, at the bottom in the far back corner I grabbed out a golden box clad in silver embellishments looking like branches and leaves. I placed it into my bag and made my way outside.

"I have to ask." I looked over to Jay as I punched in my code to my room to say I was fully vacating it. "Why do you keep your hair much longer?"

"Honestly. Just to piss off anyone I can." Jay laughed. "Nah. I don't really have a reason, I guess I've just gotten used to it being a bit longer.

We made our way to the side of the cruiser we were to board to go to Adalard. We formed ranks with the Nav.s in front and their Fighters behind them. We all made our way onto the cruiser. It was huge! The lowest level was just rows of seats for take off and landing, the med bay and another room. I think it was a small cargo bay. In an extremely disorderly fashion we all found seats for take off. With a long sigh I sat down in my seat and Jay sat next to me.

"All personal, please buckle up ready for take off." Came over the intercom. Must be the captain. We strapped in and I leaned forward to give a thumbs up to Jay and saw Zulther sitting next to him. My face went from excited to kill me now!

"Eyy! Angel! You got picked? I would have thought with your condition you would never find anyone compatible." Jay turned to me and shot me a quizzical look. I was angry but I had no words so I just shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know what he was talking about. Zulther leaned into Jays ear and whispered something. Jay's face flushed a little bit and he stared at Zulther. Then Zulther just shrugged his shoulders and turned to the person on the other side of him. I looked at Jay but he was fiddling with his hands not looking up. I decided that I would just shut my eyes while we waited for our cue to leave our seats, listening to the chatter and feeling the rumble of the engines below me. 

"We have now left the atmosphere of the planet. You may now find your cabins for the next two weeks. Those who were partnered at Gabriel, you will be following the red lights. Those partnered at Christipher you will follow the orange lights. Controller will be purple and Command blue." The man on the P.A was slowly droned out by the first load of people heading off to their new bunks. Everyone was rushing up the stairs. All of the higher ups who were down here with us were using the elevator. We sat for a while longer as to not get caught up in the crazy rush. I stood up and grabbed my bag from under my chair. We followed everyone up the first flight of stairs.

"Jay! Just remember what I said." Bellowed Zulther. Jays face went red again. He shoved his eyes to his shoes and walked up the next flight of stairs muttering. 

"Uhh, Jay? Aren't we supposed to be following the blue light?"

"I-I have different quarters." He seemed to break out of his little world. "It is okay though. I will allow you to join me. Besides we are supposed to be practically joined at the hip now yeah?" He turned and winked at me. I felt my cheeks swell and I realised that I was blushing. Thank goodness Jay turned back around to watch where he was going. 

"Because I came down on this ship they placed me on the third floor with the other officers so I wouldn't get lonely. I got to know a few of them as well. It also helps that I get some privileges because of the name McMillan. I admit I do hate it sometimes but there are some perks." We walked to a room that had Jay's name on the holo-tag. He punched a code in and the door clicked open. Thankfully there were two bunk beds sitting on the left of the room. The cupboards were at the back and the door to the bathroom was on the right. There was something about the ambience of the room. It was just nice and calming.

"Can I ask a favour Angel?"

"Yeah of course what is it?"

"Can I keep the bottom bunk? I much prefer being closer to the ground."

"Yeah, I was going to ask for the top bunk anyway."

"It's like we were made for each other." Jay made a strange hand gesture in the air and then laughed. I couldn't help myself, it just rolled off me like honey. My cheeks were very warm and I definitely had goose-bumps now.

"Angel... you okay? Your face has gone red." I placed my hands on my face, feeling the heat coming off of my cheeks. I couldn't be blushing that hard could I?

"I...I must just be a bit dehydrated." Jay pressed a section in the wall and a shelf fell down, holding two glasses and a pitcher. Jay took the pitcher to the bathroom to fill it with water. I sat down on the bed and rested my elbows on my thighs, my face in my hands. Why am I acting like this? It's going to be hard if I am going to be a blubbering mess all the time. Jay came back through the door, filled a glass up and handed it to me. "What did Zulther say to you earlier? I really don't want you getting the wrong opinion of me and he would do anything to ruin my life." 

"It is of no importance..." he stared down at his hands and was fiddling with his nails. His face had now gone a little red. 

"It is super important!" Was it getting hotter in the room or was I just getting angry? Jay opened his mouth to speak but I heard no sound. Jay's figure started to go blurry and all of a sudden everything went black


	2. Transfer

I woke up in the med bay. The ship was in night mode and all the lights were dim. There was only a skeleton crew on. I went to sit up and a horrendous splitting pain ran through my head. I pressed my head back into my pillow. I felt a pressure stir next to me. I saw a tuff of brown hair and they Jay's head popped up. 

"You're awake!" He grabbed my hand between his, placed his lips on them and closed his eyes. It was almost like he was praying. We've only known each other for a short while yet he was soo affectionate. He opened his eyes and they were watery, like he was ready to cry.

"Jay..." I squeezed his hand. "There is no reason to get upset. Look I'm fine. It has only been a couple of hours." He looked at me. A single tear made its way down his cheek.

"Angel, it has been five days." I lay there in shock. How? What in the world happened? I have never fainted little alone have an episode like that. Jay stood up and grabbed a pillow off of another bed. He beckoned me to lean forward and he placed it behind me bring me up a little bit. The lights started to slowly become brighter. I looked at my comm. device next to my bed and the word morning was slowly scrolling across the screen. 

"The mess will be opening up soon. I will head and get you some food." Before I could even get out a reply he had kissed my forehead and ran off. I looked around the med bay. It was practically the same as the one at Command, just a little smaller. Rows of beds around the outside. Cabinets and equipment in the middle and a room at the back for other equipment. A medic walked into the room and saw me sitting up. He wondered over to me and smiled.

"It is fantastic to see you awake! We weren't sure how long it would take for the drug to get out of your system." I stared at him blankly, I had no idea what had happened or what was going on. So I just kept my mouth shut. "You had a large amount of Pentothal in your system. Normally we hand small doses out for people who don't like the take off and landing or we use it in larger doses to help with induced comas. Now I have to ask... you didn't take this yourself for any reason did you?"

"Doctor... I've been training for 7 years to get here, why would I risk any of that?"

"That's the sort of answer I was expecting but I had to ask anyway. Do you know of anyone who could have slipped you the pills?"

"Honestly Doc, I have no idea."

"Well you're luck though" He pointed to the door.

"Lucky? I've missed out on five days! Jay and I will be soo behind on training and..."

"I meant with your partner." The doctor turned and motioned to Jay who was now walking through the front door with a tray of food. "He has stayed every night, brought down two serves of food for every meal, just in case you wake up. He has even been doing most of his work on his D-Pad down here as well."

"He's been doing that? For five days?"

"Every single one. Not many people have that spark straight away. You guys have something special for sure." Something special? We did seem to connect well but we hardly know each other. My train of thought was disrupted by the smell of food. 

"I was able to grab some of the officers breakfast. It is much better than that porridge stuff they have the cadets eating." 

"You were able to do that? Wow thanks!" I chowed down into the food. I didn't realise how hungry I was. Jay explained everything that had been going down the last coupled of days. He had been clocking in and doing V.R. training but was refusing to work with a different fighter. He didn't want to get used to working with someone else. That was really sweet of him. He had met with Zulther's Navigator and they had quickly become friends. As I already knew Zulther was a big loud mouth and loved to tell anyone who would listen about his latest adventure. He was boasting to some younger Fighters that he had stolen someone's Pentothal pills, made them into a highly concentrated liquid and applied it through a quick-aid patch. So that's what it was. I must have scratched the patch off when I scratched my neck at the ceremony. He just had to ruin my life didn't he? Jay said that he and Zulther's Nav. hadn't reported him but had gotten some of their own revenge. They had locked him out of all of the servers and made him get fully scanned into the system another 3 times. The Corporals had even asked Jay to fix the system and let him back in. I was in stitches from laughing. I can just imagine his angry face, not being able to do anything and having to start everything from scratch.

"The medic said that once you have finished eating we can check you out." Jay said with a mouth full of food.

"Sounds good. I am starting to feel a bit stiff." We finished eating and Jay made sure I drank two glasses of water before I even thought about getting up. He insisted that he helped me walk back to our room. He pulled my arm over his shoulder and had his hand on my hip. His hand was strong but gentle. It didn't feel uncomfortable at all. After two flights of stars we made it to our room. 

"I'm going to go for a shower, gods I must smell horrible."

"Do you want a hand with that? You still aren't super stable on your feet."

"I uhhhh....n...n.nno. I..... Should be okay. Just let me sit for a sec and I should be all good." After a few long deep breaths I made my way to the bathroom. Welcoming the warm water onto my shoulders, feeling my muscles relax. I rolled my shoulders a few times and had a good stretch. I washed my hair that felt horrible and oily. I stepped out of the shower feeling much better. I dried off and wrapped my towel over my entire body. I looked around the bathroom and I did not bring another flight suit. Gods I am an idiot. Through my mumblings of figuring out how to get to my duffle and back without being noticed a knock on the bathroom door startled me.

"You might need one of these." Jay opened the door enough to slide his hand through with a clean flight suit. I mumbled a thanks. "I understand if your not ready to share your body with me, we have only known each other for a short while. Don't be embarrassed I understand completely." He stood with his back to the door as I got dressed. Ready to go I walked to the door and opened it slightly. My hair was still sticking to my neck and shoulders. 

"Where is my duffle?"

"Oh I hope you don't mind I unpacked your clothes from your bag. I didn't touch anything else though so all your other personal items and toiletries are still in the duffle in the bottom drawer on the left." I walked over to the drawer and sure it was my duffle with all my other stuff still where I left it. It was nice of him not to snoop.

"Thanks, I just need a new hair elastic." I grabbed a new one out and shoved the door closed with my foot. "Thanks for hanging my things too. That was super kind." We walked together out of the room and to the right towards the officers lounge. Next door there was an office. Jay knocked on the door and a soft 'come in' was heard. I went to step forward however my leg had different plans. Jay was swift. His hand was instantly to my waist to help me stand. I guess I'm going to be groggy for a little while longer.

"McMillan and ..... Angel." The man behind the desk paused at my name. I don't officially have a last name so everyone uses the only name I have. Some of the higher ups struggle with that sometimes. He turned to Jay "I am glad to see that your partner is finally awake."

"Thank you Sir. I am too. It will be good to get some joint training done when he is ready." The man stood up and walked to the front of the desk.

"I hope that will be soon?" He turned to me.

"I'm still a little weak and unsteady but I am ready and will train hard to make up for lost time."

"Resilience. What I like to see. Strong willed and eager for the task. I expect good things from you two." He leaned back onto the desk. His face going serious. "Now in your own words tell me what happened?"

"The medics found Pentothal in his blood. A strangely high concentrate, hence why he was out for soo long. "

"And why do you think they found that?" He looked down his nose at me, he even turned slightly to hint that I should answer for myself.

"I believe it was a prank from a fellow Cadet Sir. Unfortunately one that was a bit extreme. I am sure it was not meant to be such a high dosage and they did not mean for me to be out for so long." I tried to keep my voice as solid as I could but uncertainty definitely slipped its way in there. He sighed and straightened back up. He did not look impressed by my answer but was happy to take it anyway.

"You two are far enough behind as it is. Make sure you are caught up as soon as possible." With that he waved his hand and walked back around to his chair. That was well and truly our cue to leave. We walked outside and Jay turned us left and walked towards the stairwell.

"Come on! I'll take you to the holo-chambers. I started the specs for our ship. You wanna come check her out?"

"What sort of question is that? Lead on!" We walked down a flight of stars and made our way to the holo-chambers. 

"I didn't want to do too much, but they want our specs as soon as possible. If there is anything you want to change it is an easy fix. We walked to holo-chamber four. Jay punched in his code followed by mine then another series of numbers and letters that were probably for the program he wanted to run. The machine started to humm as the program kicked in. We walked into the room as the chamber started making everything come to life. I stared in awe. I forget how amazing technology can be,

"Just a little started? She's practically completely built." I walked around the ship taking her in. "She is fantastic.You even have the guns I prefer loaded onto the specs. How did you know?"

"I tend to read a lot. I may or may not have haccked into the system to get your file. I wanted to get to know you, your fighting style, your preferences. Since I couldn't just ask...."

"Not sure if you could trust me?" I added in jest.

"NO! no... nothing like that!" His cheeks flushed a little. "I honestly was just trying to get to know you and get everything as sorted as I could so that when you woke up we weren't so far behind."

"Don't stress yourself. I was only teasing... Besides. This is amazing. I don't have the words to express how impressed I am." I walked to the side of the ship to the entrance for the cockpit. I looked to Jay and he pressed a couple of buttons on his D-Pad. A ladder appeared in front of me. He then tapped on it again and another ladder appeared for him. I met him at the top of the ladders looking into the cockpit. He grabbed my hand and placed it on the glass in front of me. A green line worked it's way around my hand and then it flashed green. The glass opened up to reveal nothing. I looked to Jay and he had placed his hand on the glass in front of him. The outline for him was blue and it flashed green.The glass opened up to reveal his side of the cockpit all designed and ready. It mainly had is navigational gear, control panel, some weaponry along with a slot for hand-held weapons. I looked at it with awe. 

"That is so cool! I love that is a back to back craft. I find they are the best designs. You have weapons of your own though, I didn't think you were allowed to do that?"

"It is not written anywhere that it is not allowed. Most navigators don't because that is the whole point of having a fighter. I always thought, it doesn't matter how good you are, you can always use some backup. What if its lights out on your side or I lose you all together, then I'm completely defenceless. Rerouting your system over to mine is hard enough as it is, let alone trying to do it in the midst of battle. So I figure I may as well at least have a few short range weapons to cover my ass in a complete emergency." I stood there stunned. I just looked at him. I was just in awe he was so clever to think of everything. Admittedly I was even a little turned on. "I'm not trying to insinuate that you are a bad fighter. I've read all of your files you are amazing, lets just say I like to be prepared. If you are willing to help me learn how to shoot?"

I tried to form words but they alluded me for a while. It is just soo impressive. He thinks of everything. He read through my file and practically has built my dream ship in front of me without any of my help. AND he has done this all on his own to stop us from falling behind compared to everyone else. "Honestly," I paused to breathe in. Jay dipped his head with that one word. "I'm impressed." The smile that reached his face was to die for. He looked like a little kid trying to impress his father. "You've thought of everything. Although I must admit I have no plan on being knocked out or being taken out of commission any time soon. I love the idea. Of course I'll show you how to shoot as well! Pass us that stylus and I'll get started on my side." Jay handed his stylus over. A jolt ran through me as our hands touched. I smiled and turned to my side of the cockpit. 

I swiped the stylus in the air and a design panel came up. Well firstly I needed a chair. Always loved a comfy bucked chair. Need to have it on some rigging though so it can move and take some of the shock out of any hits we get. I climbed into the chair that materialised. Oh yeah! This one is the best. Next a safety harness. There aren't too many different designs but I prefer the one that clips up at my chest. Control panel next. Energy and fuel on the far right. Maps on the left. Now to organise.... "Hey Jay!" I yelled as I turned around. However Jay was leaning on the side of the glass watching me intently. "Oh you're right there. Sorry. Uhh. Can you tell me the exact model number for each of the guns you've rigged up. I can be quite fussy with what I use with which guns."

"Yeah of course." he tapped through his D-Pad and then handed it to me. I set up a selection of different scopes to activate dependant on which gun I was using. I put the selection panel at the top of the screen. Next were my actual controls, a couple of good old fashioned joy sticks for my short and mid range blasters. A ball mouse and buttons for my long rage canon and a secondary set of joy sticks, just in case. 

"That was quick." Jay pulled me out of my little world I was in. "Almost done?"

"Just a few finishing touches." I added a key pad for communication, and as extra gun controls. On my left there was a spare spot so I added in a small Nav. ball.

"A Nave ball?" Jay asked. "Really?"

"Just in case," I winked. "I will need some help practising to use it though. I'm not as practised as I would like to be. Not today though. I am knackered." I yawned. "Shall we double check them tomorrow and then send them in?" Jay nodded. I expected him to head down the ladder but instead he climbed in on top of me. He placed his hand on the joy sticks and checked out my set up. 

"You're right this seat is really comfy. Good choice"

"Currently I am the seat." I retorted. Jay giggled. I rested my head on his back and closed my eyes. He was warm, I could head his heart beating. I yawned again. 

"Lunch time?"

"Sounds good." Jay got up and made his way down the ladder. I quickly followed suit. Jay fiddled with the comm., saved our design and then shut the program down. We slowly made our way across to the mess hall. On the left there was a massive window looking out. The stars were sparkling so bright in the distance. I stopped to look through the window. Jay realised that I was no longer beside him and backtracked to stand beside me.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Jay said.

"Its amazing! It just goes on forever!"

"I'm sure it has to stop somewhere."

"Looks like most people have gotten used to the view already and aren't fascinated by it any more." I looked around and everyone was just heads down, eating their food. No interest in the beauty of what was just outside.

"McMillan!"

"Hey that's Damon! Lets go say hi." Jay grabbed my wrist and led me over to were Damon was. Damon was thin, shorter than myself and had big soft blue eyes. "Damon is Zulther's Navigator. Damon this is Angel."

"Nice to finally meet you. I'm sorry about Zulther although you have known him longer than I have. He definitely gets a certain way about people. But..." Was Damon blushing? "He does have a sweet side. It's just not a side he shows." Zulther... Sweet? This guy was nuts.

"I hear you got some pretty good revenge for me. Thanks for that! I've known Zulther since I started training at Command. He has only ever treated me like crap. I thought I was rid of him when he got a Nav. a couple of years ago but he came back after his last Nav. disappeared."

"He would come into our bunks and riot about the fact that he had been locked out again and McMillan had to fix it. It even bugged him more that it was your Nav. that had to help him too. He was soo mad." Damon's blush had faded but there was a cheeky smirk evident on his lips. We all walked up to the line to have a look at what was up for lunch today. An assorted amount of cold meats and salad were up for offer. We all filled up our plates and walked to a table in front of the window. Jay and Damon talked but I was too interested in by the stars. This is the first time that I have ever been off planet. It all was just so magical.

"Angel... Angel!" I could hear Jays voice in the background.

"Huh?"

"You with us?"

"Yeah yeah, sorry just fascinated by the view."

"It is amazing isn't it." Damon responded. "I wonder how far it goes and what else is out there. Will we ever be able to explore it all?"

"You are just as curious as Angel," Jay giggled. "I'm friends with two air heads, Or should I say space heads."

"That was horrible....." All three of us started laughing. I was lucky, I hadn't even been awake for a full day and I had met two great people.


	3. Dinner Talks

After lunch Damon went to train with Zulther, so Jay took me for a slow tour of the ship. we walked all the way down to the bottom level of the transport ship. This level was purely for landing and take off. Along with the med bay and the cargo hold there wasn't much else to the lowest level. We walked around a little bit then wandered back up the stairs. The third level is purely just rooms and bunks for those on the ship. Ships like this are purely for transportation of troops. We didn't walk around the bunks, mainly because I couldn't be bothered. There are five hallways with rooms on every side. The next level is where the mess, kitchen, holo-chambers, and simulation room are located. The holo-chambers are for ship design and large fighting scenarios. We walked into the simulation room. The pods are in rows to the left of the room. You can link the pods in groups of two or groups of four. So you can do simulations by yourself, with your partner or you and your partner can do a sim with another pair. To the right were rows of bookcases with an extensive collection of different types of styles of simulations. We wondered through the shelving having a look at different simulations they had on offer. The second level is all for the higher ranking officers. They have offices and rooms, plus their own mess hall to eat at. This is also the floor Jay's room is on. It is much more quiet on this floor as the officers and higher ranks are less rowdy than the new recruits. We wondered to the stairs to look up but not go up. The top level is the deck. We don't have the required ranks so we just stood and looked up. After a while Jay grabbed my hand. He smiled and then lead me back to our room. He punched in the room code and the door opened. I wondered to Jay's bed and sat down. Gods I was surprisingly tired. The ship seemed big but once you walked around it, it wasn't actually that big. I started to feel a little faint. Jay wondered over with a glass of water and handed it to me.  
"Thanks." I gave him a weak smile.  
"Are you okay?"  
"I am just feeling a little weak." I sipped my water. Jay wondered over to my cupboard and grabbed something. He wondered back over to me and handed over a D-Pad.  
"This one is yours. You up for setting it up?"  
"May as well." I pressed on a section of the wall to create a shelf to place my glass. I laid down on my stomach and pressed my chin on Jay's pillow. He came and laid down next to me.  
"First thing you need to do is create your avatar."  
"What? An Avatar?"  
"Yep! Everyone makes an avatar. We use this in the simulation chambers as well. We connect our D-Pads to the pods and it uses our avatars rather than having to scan our details in every single time." I looked at Jay quizzically. "Your D-Pad also keeps all the information on your fighting style, preferred weapons all that sort of stuff so it is quick and easy for the simulation pods. It makes it easier so you can use which ever pod you use, your information will always be up to date.  
"Wow! That is really clever. Couldn't they just scan us in as ourselves though?"  
"They found that the recruits were more responsive to training when they could personalise their avatar and be more inventive with their characters. A couple of the older guys made some games that you can play in the simulation pods. They have fantasy games, action games and all that. All the games help some way or another in training of some sort. They organised it like that so that the higher ups would approve of them."  
"So.. our avatar doesn't have to look like ourselves." All this information was going over my head.  
"Nope, but it does have your name on it so everyone knows who's avatar is who's." Jay moved his arm over and turned the D-Pad on. A little black line worked its way in a circle. An avatar walked into the middle of the circle and waved.  
"Hiya Angel!" the Avatar said. I turned my head towards Jay. He had shoved his face into the pillow and was blushing hard.  
"Is it supposed to do that?" Jay lifted his head up a little  
"I possibly already hacked into your D-Pad and installed my avatar to greet you every time you turn it on. I.... I thought it'd be cool." He had turned scarlet red. He smashed his head back down into the pillow out of embarrassment.  
"I think its really cute!" Jay lifted his head, his eyes were wide in shock. "Really! It's adorable. I went through the first couple of things setting up the language and the background colour. Next up is making my avatar. There are way more choices than I ever thought there could be. You could choose from a whole range of natural human skin colours along with a range of many other colours, including blue, green and yellow. I think I'll go for a relatively similar look to myself. I picked one of the lighter skin colours. Next was the face. I pick an oval face with light blue eyes. Now for my hair. Longer hair styles obviously. There was one with the hair bulled back into a low bun with strands falling over the shoulders. Perfect! I picked a light blonde for the hair and eyebrow colour. For now I'll just have my avatar wear the basic fighter uniform. A black flight suit edged in a dark blue.  
"Going for a look like your own?"  
"Yeah makes it easy for now. I might change it later if I feel like it." We spent the afternoon going through and inputting all my information. This included my preferred style of fighting, the guns I like to use on my ships, the combat weapons I prefer. Jay showed me some cool games to download, along with the mandatory applications we need for training and study. Jay showed me a good navigation app to help me. I let out a large yawn.  
"Tired?" Jay rolled onto his side to look at me.  
"Yeah... I must still have some of the drug circulating through my system,"  
"Why don't you take a nap and I'll come back in an hour or so with dinner?" He brushed a lock of hair back behind my shoulder, sending shivers through my body. I went to protest but I yawned again.  
"Fine. fine, I'll lay down for a little bit." As Jay left the room he dimmed the lights. I stretched out and smelt the sheets. They smelt like him. It made my body buzz. Although within a few minutes I was sleeping soundly.   
An hour or so later I can sense the light slowly becoming brighter. I heard the door close and footsteps walk towards me. I saw Jay walking up with a tray of food. I slowly sat up. He pressed a button on the wall with his hip and a table and chairs rose up from the floor. Jay placed the food on the table.  
"So it is roast night. I may have also just gone to the officers mess because it is closer. I grabbed one with lamb and one with beef. I was devastated that there was no pork. Which one would you prefer?"  
"I'm happy to just have the beef."  
"Not a lamb person?"  
"I thought you'd already know, since you did so much reading up on me." I made my way to the table and sat down. Jay stood with his hands still on the table, mouth agape. I didn't think he knew what to say. "I'm just giving you shit." I looked up at him with a smile. "Truth be told, I've never eaten lamb. I was never exclusive enough to eat it as a kid, and I never thought to try it at Command."  
"Well if you wish to try some go ahead. I don't mind you picking off of my plate."Jay had relaxed and sat down at the table. He took the two plates off the tray and placed the beef in front of me. He chopped a little bit of the meat on his plate and swished it through the gravy. He then passed me the fork. I took the fork and placed the food in my mouth. I looked at Jay and he was waiting for my reaction. His look was that of someone waiting for you to open their present that they know you are going to love. I chewed the food in my mouth. It was nice and tender and unlike anything I had ever tried before.  
"It's delicious," Jay took the fork from me. He cut another piece and placed some strange green sauce on top of it.  
"Now try it." He turned the handle of the fork back to me. I placed the food into my mouth. The flavour was completely different. I scrunched my eyebrows together trying to place the new flavour on top of the lamb. "It's amazing hey!" Jay really was watching me intently. "The green stuff is mint sauce. I don't know who ever came up with the crazy idea but it is like magic on your tongue." I finished chewing and nodded in agreement to his statement. "Did you want to swap meals, I don't mind at all."  
"Could we just share? Say place both plated in the middle and we both each what ever we want?" Jay stood up and moved around the table and stood next to me. I watched him intently as he wondered around. He then sat down and pulled his plate across the table.   
"How about I sit here then? Makes it a lot easier." I nodded. We sat in silence for a while, just eating off of whichever plate we fancied. I took a deep breath in.  
"Thank you for looking after me so much. You hardly even know me and you've been the nicest person I've met. No one has been as kind as you have been." Jay almost chocked on his mouthful of food.  
"You're kidding right?" I just shook my head. It really was the nicest anyone had been to me. If you don't count Commander Jericho taking me under his wing after he found me. Before that, I was just trash. Water started to well up in my eyes. Jay looked at me when I hadn't verbally responded. He dropped his fork that was almost at his mouth. Food splattered across the table. "Hey, Angel. It is okay." He reached a hand to my face to wipe away the tear making its way down my cheek. I closed my eyes. I couldn't bear to look at his face, to see pity. The affection however was warm, it was so comforting. I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I never cried. I never felt safe enough to do so. Something about being here with Jay was just so safe. I brought my hand up to rub my eyes when I realised Jay's hand was still on my cheek. I opened up my eyes to see his concerned face.   
"S..sorry" It was all I could choke out. My whole body was failing me. It was like a the dam holding back all my despair from the years past was cracking. I breathed in a shaky breath. Holding Jay's hand against my face basking in its warmth. Even after escaping the outskirts, people at Command treated me like crap because I was being raised by the Commander. I had escaped one hell and walked into another. Commander Jericho had tried his best to help me get through it until I was able to join up and train as hard as I could. Thinking about my past never made me feel any happiness. Jay moved his hand from my face and I was bitter about the removal of the warmth. His arms then encircled me. He pulled me close to him, placed his hand on my head and pressed my face into the crook of his neck. The dam broke. Tears spilled out of my eyes and sobs escaped my lips. What was wrong with me? I grabbed onto the front of Jay's flight suit and pulled myself closer to him. Jay just hugged me tighter. He didn't ask any questions, he just sat there and comforted me with his warm embrace.   
After a couple of minutes I started to calm down. I brought myself up from Jay's shoulder and wiped my eyes.   
"Sorry," I said again.   
"Don't apologise. Sometimes you just need to get your emotions off of your chest. You obviously have had a rough childhood. There must be loads of crap bundled up in there."  
"Yeah, that about scratches the surface." I leant back and wiped my face again. Jay filled up his fork full of food. He moved the fork towards my mouth. I opened up but obviously not far enough, some of the food fell onto me and onto the floor. I chewed and swallowed, then started giggling. That then turned into laughter. Jay started laughing as well. He had obviously done this on purpose. I piled food onto my fork, trying to cram as much food as I could into his mouth. He tried to close his mouth, but there was too much food. Tears came to his eyes as he had to chew with his mouth open and hold back his laughter. I got up to get him a glass of water which he gratefully accepted. He took a long drink after a polite thanks. I continued to laugh. I wiped the new tears from my eyes. "Thanks Jay," I took a deep breath. Jay hugged me again. This time I placed my hands around his back as well. We sat there for a moment. It felt good. I took a few shaky deep breaths, I could feel Jay breathing deeply as well. Jay pulled back from me, his hands on my shoulders.  
"If you ever need to talk, wanna get it off of your chest.... Or not. You know where to find me." He stood up and collected the plates and the tray. He placed them on a table by the door, he is probably just going to take them back at breakfast tomorrow. I stepped up from the table and walked into the bathroom. I ran the cold water and splashed my face a few times. The cool water was refreshing. I walked back into the room, the table was now gone and Jay was getting ready to go to sleep. 


End file.
